U.S. Senate legislation giving President Barack Obama $2.7 billion to deal with tens of thousands of Central American migrant children amassing at the southwestern U.S. border was blocked on Thursday by Republican opposition.

By a vote of 50-44, 10 short of the 60 needed, the bill failed to clear a procedural hurdle. Republicans objected to the cost of the measure and complained that it would not be effective in discouraging rising illegal migration of children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

Earlier on Thursday, the House of Representatives failed to pass a $659 million funding bill that the White House had threatened to veto. House Republican leaders are trying to figure out a way to bring a border-security bill back to the chamber for passage.

Republican lawmakers emerged from a closed-door meeting telling reporters of the decision and the goal of passing a bill on Friday. It was not yet clear if that bill would be identical to the one that was withdrawn or changed to lure more support.

House Speaker John A. Boehner was always expected to have trouble passing emergency funds for the crisis at the Southwestern border -- but Republican Sen. Ted Cruz made his job impossible.

Cruz, the hard-line Texas Republican, has been working behind the scenes to stir up conservative opposition to a House GOP plan to approve $659 million to secure the border and handle the flow of 57,000 migrant youths.

And it worked. Amid disarray, House GOP leaders canceled Thursday's vote after it was clear they did not have the votes.

The senator's handiwork lighted up the telephone lines in the Capitol after an appearance on a tea party webinar. He further stoked opposition among House Republicans meeting privately over pizza on the eve of Thursday's vote.

House GOP leaders bristled at the senator's interference on their turf. Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said Cruz had "hijacked" the Republican Party. Democrats jokingly referred to "Speaker Cruz."

Ultimately, Boehner was pressured into attaching a Cruz-inspired bill that would halt the administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program giving 500,000 young immigrants legal status if they remain in school or join the military.

Cruz had similar legislation in the Senate but was unable to get a vote in that chamber. With a push from Cruz, the effort shifted to the House, where the bill also would have blocked any future legalization programs President Obama has promised to deliver later this year.

That's not the message Republicans want to send to Latino and immigrant voters on Congress' last day of business before the long August break for midterm election campaigning.

"The way Republicans have demonized the kids," said border-state Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), "it's going to come back and bite them."

Democrats dubbed it the "No New Dreamers Act" -- using the common nickname for the young adults whose renewal of temporary legal status would have been blocked if the House action became law.

Boehner nevertheless calculated that it was better to pass the border crisis bill now -- to show the House was able to respond to the problem -- and worry about political fallout later.

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